The woman fantastic in contemporary American media culture

"Although the last three decades have offered a growing, changing body of scholarship on images of fantastic women in popular culture, these studies either tend to focus on one particular variety of fantastic female (the action or sci-fi heroine), or on her role in a specific genre (villain, hero, temptress). This edited collection strives to define the "Woman Fantastic" more fully, in a range of media. The Woman Fantastic may appear in speculative or realist settings, but her presence is always recognizable. Her gendered textual and cultural construction seems entirely fantastic. Neither second- or third-wave role model nor "positive" image to counteract something perceived as "negative," she instead embodies an artificial construction of womanhood that "does" gender in ways that reflect back to us what we mean when we talk about gender. The concept of the "Woman Fantastic" signals this volume's focus on textual constructions that foreground artificiality--through futuristic contexts, fantasy worlds, alternate histories, or the display of super powers that challenge the laws of physics, chemistry, and/or biology. In chapters devoted to certain television programs, adult and young adult literature, and comics, contributors discuss feminist negotiation of today's economic and social realities. Senior scholars and rising academic stars offer compelling analyses of fantastic women: from Wonder Woman and She-Hulk to Talia Al Ghul and Martha Washington; from Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville Series to Cinda Williams Chima's The Seven Realms Series; and from Battlestar Gallactica's female Starbuck to Game of Thrones' Sansa and even Elaine Barrish Hammond of USA's Political Animals"--